Beauty & lifestyle

Month: January 2016

Hope you had a great week! It feels good to blog towards the end of a really hectic week at work! Today, I am finally sharing my thoughts on a lipstick which I use so often that I’ve overlooked reviewing it here 🙂 I picked up the Jane Iredale pure moist lipstick in Renee on Hautelook maybe a year back and have used it a ton since adding it to my lipstick drawer. The packaging on mine is the older thicker tube packaging. They have revamped the design to a more sleek tube which you can take a look at on the Jane Iredale website. I hope they haven’t changed the formula because this one is awesome formula wise!

Jane Iredale Lipcolor

The shade I picked up is a lovely warm to neutral tone petal pink shade called Renee. This color works fabulously with my yellow undertone skin and I do usually find it challenging to find a petal pink shade that doesn’t lean too cool. The shade is perfect for everyday wear- office appropriate for sure!

Jane Iredale lipstick in the shade Renee

This is a no fuss product which you can slap it on your lips and go about your daily business. I like the shape of the lipstick bullet since it almost hugs the lips and glides on smoothly. The formula is the right balance of moisture, shine and matte. There isn’t much slip to the product so once it is on your lips it doesn’t glide all over the place, at the same time, it is not a dry formula either. It leaves the right amount of shine on the lips and feels lightweight and comfortable.

Swatch of Jane Iredale lipstick in Renee

The lipstick has a slight vanilla mint scent which is very mild and does not irritate my lips. My lips are usually sensitive to mint scented products and this did not cause any discomfort. The staying power is average with the product fading a bit with eating and drinking. This does not stain the lips but does not fade away in a patchy fashion as the day goes by. Overall, the formula gets an A+ from me.

I do not remember how much I paid for this lipstick on Hautelook, but on the Jane Iredale website the lipsticks with the new packaging are priced at 25$. That is quite expensive! I am not sure if I will pick up any of the other colors simply because I hate the new packaging! I really like the old packaging which looks quite classy in my opinion. I also like the shape of the bullet in the old version. The newer ones have the standard slanted tip.

Overall, I am now curious to try more Jane Iredale products! This was my first purchase from their line and I really like it. What are your favorite Jane Iredale products?

My very first blog post of the year! Happy new year everyone! The winter season is when my normally dry skin loves to get extra dry and annoying. I have been loving the home made egg yolk face masks I talked about a couple of weeks ago but they can be quite messy and too much work when I am really lazy 😉 . I wanted to hunt down a good moisturizing face mask and saw a lot of good reviews on the Antipodes Manuka Honey face mask. I have not seen them in the US but I found them on the British website Feelunique.com. Feelunique has become a favorite website to try out new brands which I do not usually have access to. I picked this up for 23$ since they had some offer for black friday.

Antipodes Aura Manuka Honey Mask

Antipodes is a New Zealand brand which is organic and uses mostly natural ingredients in their skincare products. Prior to purchasing the mask I scoured the web for reviews and found that the Manuka honey mask is one of their star products.

I like the packaging. The tube packaging is hygienic and limits the exposure of the product to air.The mask is very light and creamy and very unlike conventional masks which can be thick. Spreading this on the face, it forms a thin creamy layer which is slightly sticky. The mask has a pleasant orange and vanilla smell. A closer look at the ingredients show the presence of vanilla and orange essential oils so if you are sensitive to essential oils , you might need to proceed with caution with this mask.

The texture of the mask before and after spreading on the skin

The instructions tell you to keep the mask on for 15 mins and rinse off with warm water. I usually leave it on for 20 to 25 minutes. After washing the mask off , my skin does feel nice and soft. However, I did not find it to be hydrating. An hour or so after I wash off the mask, my skin feels dry again. My winter time dry skin seems to be winning against this face mask! I have not yet completely written off this face mask and I am curious to see how well it performs in the summer. However, I have to admit that I am disappointed with the mask especially since it has an original price tag of 30$.

I am puzzled as to why this mask isn’t hydrating enough since it does have a good ingredient list as you can see below:

Ingredient List

With ingredients like Manuka honey, Avocado oil and glycerin among the first few in the list, this mask did really look like a winner to me! Sigh! If only it was a winner 😦

Have you tried anything from the Antipodes brand? Let me know what are your recommendations!